My Dog Skip (*** ½) (Out of 4) – Everyone has a weakness when they go to the movies. Whether it be gushy romance, shoot ‘em up action or quality kills – there is at least one genre or one thing that people can’t resist. Mine is movies about dogs. Good movies about dogs. And My Dog Skip ranks as one of the best.

Set in 1942 during the war, the story follows the growing up of young Willie, who on his ninth birthday receives the best friend he’ll ever have with Skipper – Skip for short. His father, a war veteran who lost his leg, doesn’t think his son is ready for a dog and in a heartbreaking scene, takes it away from him almost as soon as his mom gives it to him. In a lesser film, Willie’s father (nicely played by Kevin Bacon) would just be seen as coldhearted and a meanie, but here we understand his reasoning as he’s more concerned about potential grieve for his son if anything should ever happen to Skip. Nevertheless, he is convinced by his wife to keep him, thus beginning the wonderful relationship between a boy and his dog. Skip takes Willie through the steps of dealing with girls, race relations and dealing with bullies. The way Willie scores a touchdown in the football game with the kids that torment him is unquestionably priceless. So is the one Willie trains Skip to be one of the dogs to join in the fight against Hitler. Skip, hopefully, is destined to go down as one of the great movie dogs of all time. There is also a nicely involving subplot involving Willie’s initial friend Dink Jenkins, a popular town jock. When he goes off to war in the beginning, we fear the worse, and are really taken off-guard when he returns to a fate almost worse than death. Luke Wilson brings a nice hometown quality to Dink and their friendship is touching. A heart-to-heart talk between Willie and his dad in the woods as a poor deer is shot by hunters is also very moving. For some reason, dog movies always have to have villains. And not just ordinary villains – but the slimiest, dirtiest most evil creatures that would turn James Bond’s stomach. They are here in the form of a couple of moonshiners played by Peter Crombie (“Crazy” Joe Davola from Seinfeld) and one of the kings of scary movie guys, Clint Howard. Since the story is based on true events and I have yet to read the memoir it’s based on, I’ll accept it here. Now I admit it. I’m a sucker for a good dog movie. And I’m not talking about movies like K-9 and Turner and Hooch. I’m referring to films such as Homeward Bound, Benji the Hunted and Shiloh, movies about dogs with true personalities who either know how to fend for themselves or aid their owners in growing up and lessons about life. Not often does a film come along and touch my heart so profoundly. I can count the number of movies I’ve cried at on my two hands and the movies I will continue to cry at with each successive viewing on merely one. E.T. is a dead giveaway as one of the latter and what man can contain himself during the ending to Field of Dreams. But I challenge anyone with a heart, who had a dog growing up (as I still do – Gizmo) not to be emotionally wrung during the final half hour, starting with a moment on a baseball field that flung me back in my chair and had me covering my mouth. I was a mess for the rest of the movie, and just when I had composed myself, some final images of an older Skip started me going all over again.

Is it just overly melodramatic? Perhaps. The music lays it on pretty thick throughout and I can see that. My Dog Skip is in no way a perfect film - I’d still like to know what Willie’s parents thought of him spending all night in a graveyard on a dare. But it’s all perfectly suited for such a well-written, well-acted tale of growing up that I couldn’t help but relate to on certain levels. Perhaps time will tell, but I know I can at least count My Dog Skip the next time I have a conversation about tears at the movies.